1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatuses and methods for manufacturing a display panel. More particularly, the present invention relates to apparatuses and methods for manufacturing a curved display panel formed by bonding a pair of substrates together and molding the bonded body into a curved shape.
2. Description of the Related Art
Liquid crystal display (LCD) panels are manufactured by bonding a pair of substrates together by a frame-shaped sealant, and enclosing a liquid crystal material between the substrates.
For example, Japanese Published Patent Application No. H03-73930 discloses a method for manufacturing an LCD panel, in which, in an assembly step of sealing a first substrate and a second substrate, which correspond to the pair of substrates described above, by a sealant with a predetermined gap therebetween, the first substrate and the second substrate are sealed while pressing these substrates with airbags using air pressure.
Incidentally, flexible display panels using flexible film substrates instead of conventionally used glass substrates have been developed in the fields of LCD panels and organic EL (electro luminescence) display panels.
Moreover, by taking advantage of the flexibility of film substrates, display panels molded in a curved shape have been recently proposed to obtain the panel shape according to the surface profile and the size of a panel installation space, and to improve the design.
For example, Japanese Published Patent Application No. S62-238526 discloses a manufacturing method of a curved LCD device in which a sealant between a pair of glass substrates of an LCD device is cured with the substrates being held under pressure between a male curved jig having a primary convex surface and a female curved jig having a primary concave surface corresponding to the convex surface.
However, when manufacturing a curved display panel by using the manufacturing method disclosed in Japanese Published Patent Application No. S62-238526, it is necessary to press a flat display panel by pressing jigs having a predetermined radius of curvature according to the model of the display panel, such as the male curved jig and the female curved jig. Thus, in order to change the radius of curvature of a display panel to be manufactured, it takes time to place pressing jigs by, for example, detaching pressing jigs corresponding to the previous model from a pressing apparatus, and then, attaching pressing jigs corresponding to the next model to the pressing apparatus, which can reduce production efficiency. Moreover, since special pressing jigs are required to be manufactured according to the radius of curvature of an LCD panel, a multiplicity of pressing jigs can be required for a plurality of radii of curvature, and the area that is occupied by the apparatus on the floor surface in order to secure the space for placing or storing the multiplicity of pressing jigs, that is, the footprint, can be increased.